Cork Cobh race 2014

Week ending 28^th September

And on it goes.  3 weeks to the Amsterdam marathon. Clocked up another 60 mile week, this week was a tougher effort in terms of getting out there and getting the mileage done. Monday was a 3 mile walk with my wife, the desire to even do a recovery run wasn’t particularly appealing so the walk was a good option. On Tuesday morning I had a long day ahead of me but a late start so I ran 10 miles at 7 am in the morning around Charleville. The pace picked up for the second  half of the run with me coming me at 8.03 pace. The HR was 148 so all very solid but by Wednesday that old tired feeling was back again so I did the wisest thing and took a day off.

Thursday was a big workout, a 10 mile run with a 7 mile tempo at 7.05 pace. This was my fastest tempo workout of the present cycle and my 7^th tempo workout since June. In June I ran 3 miles at 7.18 pace so the improvement was obvious, my HR was spot on this time too, 161. That left me running 11 miles up in Mayfield on Friday at 8.16 pace and a 6 mile recovery run on Saturday morning in glorious Autumnal  sunshine.

Sunday was the morning of my last race in training for Amsterdam – the Cork Cobh 15 mile run. I ran this in 2011 and 2012 and it’s a excellent event. Again like in previous years I wanted to use it as a marathon pace run so after collecting Dermot and Kevin from Mallow I ran 5 miles around the north ring road before settling down for the race. I started off at 7.40 pace which wasn’t strictly the plan ( I was thinking 7.55) but decided to stick with it. The sun started to come out at mile 4 so I decided to walk through the water stations and get plenty of water inside me. It’s probably the only way to drink out of paper cups and I made up the lost time quite easily. The first 5 miles passed in 38.13 which put me well under 8 minute pace. I saluted Grellan and Margaret and a few others who like me were running the course as a easier long run. By mile 10 John Holland was there to cheer us on and I hit the clock in 1hr16min33secs. I was beginning to feel slightly light headed as we crossed into Cobh, possibly due to heat loss, the gear i was wearing was probably a bit heavy and I could have done without the t shirt under the singlet. Mile 11 and mile 12 passed in 7mins40seconds and 7mins35seconds so my times were still very solid. However by mile 13 the effort was beginning to tell and going up the hill I was glad to the end of it. My splits were solid enough (7.42) but the Hr was climbing to 163. Mile 14 passed in 7.41 – again a hilly mile and a few runners were reduced to walking. Negative thoughts were soon banished with cheers of support from the locals on the street and I crossed the line in 1.54.45 running the last mile in 7.21. This was about a minute faster than 2 years ago but i was a lot more comfortable that time. Dermot and Kevin had finished well ahead of me and were happily chatting to other finished runners while I was catching my breath before we faced the long hilly walk to the community centre. Peadar dropped us back to Cork where we drove back home.

Looking at the stats on the garmin- my average time was 7mins38seconds, my average HR was 158. A high Hr certainly around 5 beats higher than 2 years ago. That said I wouldn’t be getting too hung on the stats too much. I still ran 20 miles with 15 miles at a fast  marathon type pace. The taper awaits....

Monday 3 miles, Tuesday 10 miles, Thursday 10 miles, Friday 11 miles, Saturday 6 miles, Sunday 20 miles with 15 miles at 7.38 pace. Total mileage 60 miles.

Charleville half marathon 2014

Week ending 21^st September

As the time gets closer to the taper the tougher the training gets. As pointed out before, September is the toughest month of the lot with the  big workouts taking place over a long 4 weeks. This week was a bit different to previous week’s 60 mile plus efforts. I logged a modest total of 40 miles, happy to have a cutback week. This was due to us attending a wedding in Monaghan on the Fridaywith us having to undertake  a 4 hour drive up on the Thursday after work and another 4 hour drive down on the Saturday. It was a good wedding and it was interesting driving along the border around Clones, Monaghan town and Fermanagh. In Clones there were grim reminders of previous times with plaques to those killed in the bombing of 1974 and various ditchside plaques to those killed by the paramilitaries. Nevertheless with the peace process promising better times the famous northern hospitality was enjoyed by us revellers from the South though plenty of words were lost in translation !!!!

Monday was a 4 mile run with a 10 mile run at 7.21 pace on Tuesday and a 13 mile run at 8.10 pace on the Wednesday. Thursday, Friday and Saturday was the wedding in Monaghan. Sunday was the day of the local half marathon in Charleville. Organised by North Cork Ac I missed out on this race last year due to injury but was looking forward to it this year. It is a PB course and I had notions of pushing for a sub 94 minute time. However the morning of the race despite getting a good nights sleep in after the long drive down I decided it would be better not to push it too much. The wedding celebrations had taken it out of me so it was very much a case of see what happens on the day. The resting heart was around 53 beats rather than the more steady 48 beats of late.

The drive from my house to the start line took around 3 minutes, a nice change from the long journeys to East Cork, Clonmel, Dungarvan and Tullamore. I met as you would expect plenty of familiar faces and the chat as ever was pleasant.. I decided to line up behind the 95 minute pacer and see could I push on for the second half of the race. The first 3 miles of the course are slightly downhill which means the last 3 mile have a slight pull on the way back. Nothing major but enough to take a bit of energy out of your legs when finishing the race. As a result I took it handy enough for the first 3 miles running 7.07, 7.27 and 7.15. Michael Kilmartin, a fellow  club runner tore past me at mile 2. This was his first half marathon and I wondered if he might pay for such pace later on. As it was he didn’t, running a fantastic time of sub 1.30,an amazing time for a debut half marathon.

By mile 5 the sluggishness had left my legs and I ran mile 5 and mile 6 (through Killmallock) at around 7.13 and 7.17 pace. I was gaining ground on the 1.35 pacer. His group was dwindling away as many runners were beginning to take advantage of the downhill 4 miles.  By mile 9 I was on top of the pacer having run a couple of sub 7 minute miles. I hit mile 10 in around 1hr12mins10 seconds. The last 3 miles of the course took it’s toll on me two years ago when i finished in 1.35.50 but I was a lot more solid this time without ever at any stage looking strong enough to pull that far ahead. I ran mile 11, over the small humpback bridge in 7.07, giving me a small increase and a certain sub95 minute finish. Mile 12 was another 7.15 mile and it was the most enjoyable mile of the race with some good crowd participation and good craic with Paudie and his wife who were taking photos. Neverthe less I was feeling a small bit tired at mile 13 which passed in a slower mile of 7.27, rounding the final stretch in less than a minute. My final time crossing the line was 1.34.41 , a small improvement on two years ago and my second sub95 minute half marathon in 3 weeks.

When I crossed the line I recovered pretty quickly but drank around a litre of water such was my thirst. All the Mallow runners were very happy with their times with plenty of PB’s all round. I was happy enough with my efforts. It means I am in good shape for Amsterdam in 4 weeks time as to what kind of shape, we will see at the end of this week. As ever the race organisers put on a excellent race.

In retrospect I could have really pushed harder for a PB but I was happy to keep it steady all the way around the course. The various calculators have me down for a marathon predicted time of somewhere between 3hr19mins and 3hr25mins. Personally I prefer doubling my charleville time and adding a 15 minutes. It proves to be reasonably accurate. We will see....Another week awaits.

Two weeks in September

Week ending  14 th September

Two weeks of news to catch up on. Last week marked another high week of mileage – 62 miles in the week. That has been my highest week of mileage in nearly 2 years but next week after that will be considerably lower as work and social commitments will make 6 days a week running difficult. Anyway last week consisted of 9 mls at 7.33 pace, 4 miles recovery walking with my wife, 12.4 mls at 8.03 pace, 9 miles at 7.40 pace, rest day, 6.2 miles at 8.03 pace with a long run on the Sunday of 21.5 mls at a slow pace of 8.40. The last run was the most important workout of the week, namely the plan was to spend around 3hrs5mins on my feet. This I managed easily enough – the Hr was 140- nice and steady. I had spend the few days prior to this celebrating my birthday with plenty of food and cake. Hopefully running 62 mls will prevent any major bulge occurring.

Monday this week was another recovery jog, 4 miles at 9.13 pace with a HR of 136. That should have meant by Tuesday I should have been fully rested for the weeks mileage but all day Tuesday in work and coming home I felt definitely out of sorts. My Hr was fine but I yet didn’t feel fully up to going for a 9 mile run. When training for Cork last year I used to force myself out for a run with the results being less than satisfactory. I opted for a rest and a early night instead. By Wednesday evening I was feeling more in tune running 9 miles with a 6 mile tempo at 7.06 pace. The splits were 7.10,7.08, 7.03, 7.07,7.09,6.56. Total time of tempo was 42mins36seconds.  The Hr was 162 average but was 166 for the last mile.  All in all I was happy with the workout in terms of distance and pace. The weather was great too.

Thursday was another tough workout. For my midweek runs I was running according to time on my feet rather than pace. The idea was to get up to 13 miles, 15 miles was probably pushing it. I was up to 12.41 miles last week so i hoped to run this 12 mile run at a sub 8 pace. I ran in and out of the estate behind my estate , up and down Love Lane out and back Smiths road and 3 laps around the park before a quick water break by the Cork road heading down by Pikes Cross and back into town taking up and down the  Railway road. I was doing fine by mile 10 and I was running around 7.40 pace. The last two miles were a struggle to be honest but I managed to gut it out to complete the workout at 7.45 pace. It didn’t come easy. The Hr was 155.

Friday I normally don’t run but having missed a workout on Tuesday I wanted to get the 9 miles around town in a relaxed pace- 9 miles at 8.19 pace. The Hr was 147. Saturday was a interval session. 1.5 mile warm up and a 2.5 mile cooldown with 6 x 3 minutes at 6.40 pace. I covered around 0.45 miles with each interval, this was similar to 3 weeks ago. Were I training for races between 3.1 miles and 10 miles I would probably need to do more reps at a faster pace.Maybe in the future. I have a few ideas what I want to do after Amsterdam but that can wait a while yet.

Sunday was the bread and butter long run. We met at the roundabout at 8 am , did 7 miles and then a further 13 at Caherduggan. I ran a further 3 miles afterwards giving me 23 miles and 3hrs17mins up on the legs. I didn’t feel unduly stressed running but hopefully I can at a decent marathon pace on the day. Hr was 141, average pace 8.33. It will probably be my longest run of the current training cycle.

Total mileage for week ending 7^th September 62 miles,

Total mileage for week ending 14^th September 63 miles.